Eight-Year-Old Physics Genius Enters University -- AL, CPS, Soc
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"Song Yoo-geun, 8, wants to build flying cars, defying Newton's law of gravity, and the physics genius which has made him Korea's youngest university student may very well drive him to that dream.
"Amid scholastic achievements that have confounded experts, the public spotlight is squarely on the child prodigy and his parents, both 46 and both former teachers. What has made Yoo-geun - born late November 1997 and actually just shy of 8 years old - so special?"
Now, I don't want anyone here to feel inadequate... =)
But this article raises interesting questions regarding what makes this particular child so special. I've asked before whether human augmentation (through genetic engineering, nootropics, cybernetics, or other physical interventions) is such a big deal when ordinary human potential may already be so overwhelming. Of course, augmentation might further leverage human potential, but if "superhuman" gifts were already widely available through advanced educational methods, perhaps other augmentation resources would not seem so threatening to those who worry about "our essential humanity."
Another point worth considering is whether we would know if parents or an organization decided to start biologically augmenting the children under their care. Whether by feeding the kids nootropics, having their genes engineered, altering the balance of proteins in their brains or what-have-you, adults could potentially transform a child's capabilities, while leaving that girl or boy outwardly unchanged. Would we really know if such transcendently gifted children started to emerge? Or would we get notice, at most, that some gifted eight-year-old had just entered college? =)
Finally, for people who keep track of the perennial question of "just how far behind are American/Australian/Canadian/etc schools?" -- a thought. Whatever you may feel about your own country's educational performance, the nation that unlocks the learning methods that make prodigies like Yoo-geun possible will be able to use them with all their children. What happens to your country's relative status if your neighbor has millions upon millions of Yoo-geuns... or Srinivasa Ramunjans, Nikola Teslas or Leonardo da Vincis?
Future Imperative
"Song Yoo-geun, 8, wants to build flying cars, defying Newton's law of gravity, and the physics genius which has made him Korea's youngest university student may very well drive him to that dream.
"Amid scholastic achievements that have confounded experts, the public spotlight is squarely on the child prodigy and his parents, both 46 and both former teachers. What has made Yoo-geun - born late November 1997 and actually just shy of 8 years old - so special?"
Now, I don't want anyone here to feel inadequate... =)
But this article raises interesting questions regarding what makes this particular child so special. I've asked before whether human augmentation (through genetic engineering, nootropics, cybernetics, or other physical interventions) is such a big deal when ordinary human potential may already be so overwhelming. Of course, augmentation might further leverage human potential, but if "superhuman" gifts were already widely available through advanced educational methods, perhaps other augmentation resources would not seem so threatening to those who worry about "our essential humanity."
Another point worth considering is whether we would know if parents or an organization decided to start biologically augmenting the children under their care. Whether by feeding the kids nootropics, having their genes engineered, altering the balance of proteins in their brains or what-have-you, adults could potentially transform a child's capabilities, while leaving that girl or boy outwardly unchanged. Would we really know if such transcendently gifted children started to emerge? Or would we get notice, at most, that some gifted eight-year-old had just entered college? =)
Finally, for people who keep track of the perennial question of "just how far behind are American/Australian/Canadian/etc schools?" -- a thought. Whatever you may feel about your own country's educational performance, the nation that unlocks the learning methods that make prodigies like Yoo-geun possible will be able to use them with all their children. What happens to your country's relative status if your neighbor has millions upon millions of Yoo-geuns... or Srinivasa Ramunjans, Nikola Teslas or Leonardo da Vincis?
Future Imperative
posted by Ralph Cerchione | Sunday, November 06, 2005
1 Comments:
How many prodigies are the children of parents, anybody have any stats on that?
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